Jockey Mike Smith celebrates aboard Arrogate after winning the Travers Stakes horse race at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. on August 27, 2016. The ride is far from over for Smith, even at age 51. The jockey known as "Big Money Mike" is poised for another lucrative weekend in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita with mounts in the $2 million Distaff on unbeaten Songbird on Friday and in the $6 million Classic aboard Travers winner Arrogate on Saturday. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File)

ARCADIA >> Judging by my past success, or lack thereof, you can either go to the ATM on Friday and Saturday and take advantage of my great wisdom, or you can line your birdcage with my column and go your own way.

Either way, the 33rd Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Santa Anita could be the best we’ve seen in a long while. Horses the likes of California Chrome, Tepin, Beholder, Dortmund, Flintshire, Arrogate, Found and Songbird, to name a few, add up to one thing — extraordinary racing.

So, until further adieu, my fearless forecast. Warning: Take these predictions to the bank at your own risk.

• California Chrome and Dortmund are singles if playing the Pick Six each day.

California Chrome is at his peak at age 5 and isn’t going to let some young whippersnapper like Arrogate steal his thunder. Oh, Arrogate might stick around for a while, but he’ll wind up second best in Saturday’s $6 million Classic. Hoppertunity, Bob Baffert’s other hope to make it three in a row in North America’s richest horse race, will finish third.

Why do I think Dortmund is a cinch? Check the past performances. The 4-year-old son of 2008 Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown has lost only five times in 13 career starts — three times to California Chrome and twice to a colt named American Pharoah. There’s no Chrome or Pharoah in Friday’s Dirt Mile.

• The Breeders’ Cup holds some fond memories for trainer John Shirreffs, who won the 2008 Distaff with Zenyatta and then returned the following year to win the Classic with Zenyatta and the Distaff with Life Is Sweet at Santa Anita.

Shirreffs is winless at the Super Bowl of racing since then, but he’ll taste Breeders’ Cup success again Saturday when Gormley, unbeaten in two starts and winner of last month’s FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita, wins the Futurity and lights the fuse for early Derby chatter.

• A pair of Southern California-based trainers will experience their first Breeders’ Cup success when Big Score kicks off the proceedings Friday with a victory in the Juvenile Turf and Om comes home first in the Turf Sprint on Saturday.

Big Score’s trainer, Tim Yakteen, was supposed to have his first Breeders’ Cup starter in the 2013 Sprint at Santa Anita, but Points Offthebench suffered a fatal injury a week before the race. The 4-year-old gelding would have been a major player, but the horse’s connections had their heart ripped out like so many others in a sport that can be so spectacular one minute and so cruel the next.

Now, three years later, Yakteen gets his first shot to win a Breeders’ Cup race. It will be a great feel-good story if he gets it done.

Dan Hendricks, trainer of Om, has started four horses in the World Championships, none since 2008. Om is shortening up from one mile to 6 1/2 furlongs down Santa Anita’s hillside turf course, has the advantageous No. 12 post and the services of Hall of Fame rider Gary Stevens. A juicy 12-1 morning line awaits any brave souls.

• The European tandem of trainer Aidan O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore will add to their past Breeders’ Cup success by teaming to win the Juvenile Fillies Turf on Friday with Roly Poly and Saturday’s Filly & Mare Turf with Seventh Heaven.

O’Brien is third all-time among trainers — behind only D. Wayne Lukas (20 wins) and Baffert (12) — with 10 Breeders’ Cup victories. Moore is 10th among jockeys with eight victories and is the leading European-based rider behind only Frankie Dettori (11).

• Everyone loves a good longshot, and I’ve got one for you to play across the board. Twilight Ridge, the old warrior who is trying the Turf for the fourth time, is 30-1 on the morning line and it says here he’ll be making up ground in the stretch. Joel Rosario rides, and his grandsire was Dynaformer, a terrific producer of top grass runners.

Put a line through those sixth-, third-, and eighth-place finishes in his past three Breeders’ Cups. The 7-year-old gelding has been running against some of the best, including Flintshire, Found, Main Sequence and Magician. Give him a chance. You may be richly rewarded.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.